Norsk biografisk leksikon

Norsk biografisk leksikon is the largest Norwegian biographical encyclopedia.

The first edition (NBL1) was issued between 1921 and 1983, including 19 volumes and 5,100 articles. It was published by Aschehoug with economic support from the state.[citation needed]

Kunnskapsforlaget bought the rights to NBL1 from Aschehoug in 1995, and after a pre-project in 1996-97 the work for a new edition began in 1998.[citation needed] The project had economic support from the Fritt Ord Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, and the second edition (NBL2) was launched in the years 1999-2005, including 10 volumes and ca. 5,700 articles.[1] In 2006 the work for an electronic edition of NBL2 began, with support from the same institutions.[citation needed] In 2009 an Internet edition, with free access, was released by Kunnskapsforlaget together with the general-purpose Store norske leksikon.[1] The electronic edition features some additional biographies, and also updates date of death if a biographee dies. Apart from that is the vast body of text unaltered from the printed version.[1]